Overview
The Kanwar Yatra (Devanagari: कांवड़ यात्रा; also Kanvar or Kavad Yatra) is an annual pilgrimage undertaken by devotees of Shiva, known as Kanwarias or "Bhole". Pilgrims travel to Hindu sacred sites such as Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand, and the Ajgaibinath Temple in Sultanganj, Bhagalpur (Bihar), to fetch holy water from the Ganges. The yatra takes place during the Hindu month of Sawan.
The pilgrimage derives its name from the kanwar, a sacred water-carrying apparatus consisting of containers suspended on either side of a pole, which devotees balance on their shoulders. While the Ganga is the most common source of the water, local equivalents are also used. Pilgrims carry the water for considerable distances and offer it at their local Shiva shrines or at specific temples such as the Pura Mahadeva temple in Baghpat, the Augharnath temple in Meerut, the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and the Baidyanath temple in Deoghar.
The offering is dedicated to Shiva, who is often addressed by devotees as Bhola (innocent) or Bhole Baba (innocent saint). Within the tradition, the act of carrying Ganga water and pouring it over a Shiva lingam is regarded as a devotional observance associated with the month of Sawan.
Until the late 1980s, the yatra was a relatively small affair undertaken by a limited number of saints and older devotees. Since then it has grown considerably in scale and popularity, and the kanwar pilgrimage to Haridwar in particular has become one of India's largest annual religious gatherings. Devotees travel from neighbouring states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Bihar, with participants also coming from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. During the period of the yatra, heavy security arrangements are put in place by the authorities, and traffic on the Delh